Utility Permits Approved

Coal-burning Plant In Yorktown Will Test Emissions

February 22, 1991|By PATRICK LEE PLAISANCE Staff Writer

YORK — Virginia Power's Yorktown station will be able to conduct an eight-month experiment that is expected to cut sulfur emissions but double the particulates released into the air, the Board of Supervisors decided Thursday night.

Calling the utility a good neighbor after it responded quickly to residents' complaints over nighttime train deliveries, the supervisors gave the company permission to bury what the utility says will be non-hazardous calcium sulfate sludge produced by the experiment.

Supervisors commended Virginia Power officials for meeting with residents to iron out an agreement beforehand.

``You all did a great job working together on this,'' said Supervisor Jere Mills.

The board voted unanimously to approve the permits needed for the experiment, with Chairwoman Sandra Lubbers and Supervisor Julia Jensen absent.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is financing the $17 million project to collect data on a process that removes a component of acid rain, sulfur dioxide, from smokestack emissions.

The process uses lime, which is injected into the coal burner. The lime reacts with and captures sulfuric compounds in the dry, solid calcium sulfate. While the experiment requires one of the plant's two burning units to be available over an eight-month period, the process would be used half that time, said Kenneth Newsome, manager of the power station.

Newsome said the plant will begin using the process in the spring of 1992.

Area residents said they supported the experiment but were concerned about the increased ash.

Residents had complained about nightly train deliveries of coal to the plant until the utility eliminated shipments between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. ``Virginia Power has been very good with us, and I appreciated the close communication,'' said Richard Wallace of Waterview Road.

The power plant now releases about 15 pounds of particulates every hour from the furnace and boiler to be used in the experiment. That could increase to as much as 45 pounds per hour, which still is far below the limit of 188.5 pounds per hour allowed by the state.